


What's in a Title?

by dentsucree



Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M, Sunagakure | Hidden Sand Village, sand siblings - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-16
Updated: 2019-08-16
Packaged: 2020-09-02 06:42:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20271619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dentsucree/pseuds/dentsucree
Summary: He wouldn’t have minded being called “Lord Nara.”“Lord Shikamaru” would have been fine.Hell, “Sir Shikamaru” or even just “Sir” is what he preferred most people call him if they insisted on formalities. And honestly, as long as they weren’t younger than him, plain “Shikamaru” would do just fine too (he wasn’t much of a stickler for honorifics when it came to himself anyway).Anything but –“Prince Consort?!?”-------------------------------In which Shikamaru does not need nor want a royal Sunan title, but the Sand Siblings insist that he must take it.





	What's in a Title?

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place sometime after Gaara Hiden, months before ShikaTema's wedding.

He wouldn’t have minded being called “Lord Nara.”

“Lord Shikamaru” would have been fine.

Hell, “Sir Shikamaru” or even just “Sir” is what he preferred most people call him if they insisted on formalities. And honestly, as long as they weren’t younger than him, plain “Shikamaru” would do just fine too (he wasn’t much of a stickler for honorifics when it came to himself anyway).

_Anything _but –

“Prince Consort?!?”

He could hear Kankuro snickering by the couch, clearly amused by his future brother-in-law’s scandalized outburst.

“Yes,” the Sunan councilmember confirmed. “After much deliberation, the council has decided it would permit you to receive the title of Prince Consort upon your marriage to the Crown Princess.”

“It makes sense,” Temari said, nodding her head. “They can’t give you the title of Crown Prince. Kankuro will hold that title after our wedding. And it’s only reserved for blood-related members of the clan anyway. You can’t keep your title of ‘Lord’ without diminishing my status as Princess. The next best title they can give you is ‘Prince Consort’”

And she was right. It all made complete, logical sense. He understood the sentiment of not wanting to relinquish one’s royal status. And if they were being candid, Temari _was _marrying down by marrying him. He may be the head of the Nara Clan, but she was currently second in line to the Kazekage. His nobility couldn’t hold a candle to her royalty. She, and by extension, Sunagakure, couldn’t lose face by marrying into a clan of lower class – and one from a foreign village no less.

Shikamaru thanked his lucky stars that Temari somehow loved him enough to want to marry him despite the high possibility of the Sunan council rejecting their engagement. After going through several months of strategic diplomatic ploys (and a bit of force on Temari’s end), their marriage was approved in the end by both villages and their respective countries’ daimyos.

However, due to concerns of the possibility of a half-Konohan heir, Temari would have to relinquish her position in the line of succession from second to third. Thus, completely inverting the original line of succession based on primogeniture, as Sunan law intended.

All of this, along with the announcement that she would be immigrating to Konoha shortly after their wedding to be inducted as the Nara Matriarch didn’t sit well with the Sunan people. They felt like they were losing their beloved princess.

Shikamaru’s certainly heard rumors going around that an “unworthy upstart” was “stealing Suna’s princess.” He could only scoff at the idea of anybody so much as _think _of attempting to steal Temari. He had hoped it would all die down once the Kazekage had publicly given them his blessings, but it looked like these rumors weren’t going away any time soon.

Anyway, he knew that they needed to do something to appease the people. _He_, most of all, needed to show that he respected Temari’s title and status.

The plan was to advertise his nobility and numerous accolades as a shinobi as great assets to the royal family towards the general public. By doing so, the marriage would appear less one-sided to Sunan civilians who believed they were gaining little to nothing from this union.

Once inducted into the Kazekage Clan, they would give him an official title that matched his fiancée’s rank, but also denoted that he was still subservient to her and her brothers. It would show that Shikamaru was worthy enough to be wholeheartedly embraced by the clan (and by extension, Sunagakure) and more importantly, it would put Sunans at ease by emphasizing the royal family's power and stability.

It made perfect sense.

But…

“Consort?”

“_Prince_ Consort,” Temari corrected while looking at him pointedly. “And anyway, you’ll likely be referred to as ‘Lord’ more often than not so as to not conflate your ‘princehood’ with Kankuro’s.”

“Can’t have that happen!” the elder brother quipped facetiously from the couch where he lay splayed, legs hanging over one armrest. He was clearly enjoying Shikamaru’s chagrin.

The councilmember excused themselves from the office after having delivered the news and left Shikamaru alone with the siblings.

“Consort??” Shikamaru squeaked. It was less than dignified, really. He was in the presence of, for all intents and purposes, Suna’s royal family and more importantly, his in-laws. But the title just felt so…

His fiancée rolled her eyes at him.

“It obviously holds other…” she paused, her eyes briefly flickered around the room trying to find the right word, “…implications…in other royal households, but in Suna, it simply indicates that you married into the Kazekage clan.”

“Yeah, _bro_,” Kankuro grinned, eyes gleaming with mischief. “You’re gonna be a royal consort!”

If he were not a shinobi or the head of his own clan, he probably wouldn’t be so opposed to the idea. After all, it would only boost his social and political rank. Yet, Shikamaru couldn’t help but think of all of the royal “consorts” from other royal courts. Everyone knew it was merely a frivolous title given to courtesans to hide the fact that they were all simply there to provide children and other…services.

“It’s not like I have other consorts lying around waiting for my beck and call, Shika,” his fiancée offered exasperatedly.

“And even if she did,” Kankuro added, “you’d be the most important one!”

Kankuro quickly rolled off the couch and landed awkwardly on the floor, narrowly avoiding the kunai Temari threw at his face.

“Are you not satisfied with the title, older brother?”

Shikamaru turned to the youngest sibling who, up until that point, hadn’t spoken throughout the whole conversation.

“It’s not that I don’t appreciate being given the title, Gaara,” he insisted, trying not to offend the Kazekage. “I just don’t need it.”

“He hates it,” Kankuro whispered loudly from the floor.

Shikamaru wanted to do nothing more than to strangle said brother with his shadows right now, but it would do him no good to get kicked out of the family before he was even officially a part of it.

“I don’t understand. It is the highest title that we can offer to a spouse of a royal family member who is not the Kazekage.”

“Oh, that’s not his issue with it, little one,” the elder brother said while trying to hold in a laugh.

Shikamaru’s neck and face started to feel hot. He wasn’t quite sure whether it came from utter annoyance or sheer embarrassment. Either way, he hoped his in-law wouldn’t notice him turning red.

“He doesn’t want to feel like a glorified concubine, Gaara,” Temari bluntly clarified.

Shikamaru started sputtering at his fiancée’s crassness. Meanwhile, Kankuro bursted into laughter.

“But, you would be married…” Gaara thought out loud. He may be the Kazekage, but the youngest was quite dense when it came to these matters.

At this point, Temari didn’t care. She wanted this discussion over with.

“Regardless, he's embarrassed it would imply that his primary duty is to produce children.”

Gaara stared at his sister for a moment, then ever so slightly tilted his head. If he didn’t have the ability to kill Shikamaru in a second, he would have thought Gaara’s naïveté adorable.

“Is that not the case?”

And with that, all thoughts of the cute little brother were gone. Both he and Temari were reduced to a mess of bumbling, tomato-red faces while Kankuro rolled around the floor, howling with laughter.

**Author's Note:**

> I based Suna's royal family/Kazekage clan on a mix of a few Western European royal families as well as the Japanese and Chinese Imperial Families and courts. At the end of the day, this isn't canon LOL
> 
> Also, I understand that stereotypically, consorts and concubines are female roles, but I tried to frame it so that in this world it applied to any gender. These titles would apply to the spouse/companion of any member of a royal family. "Providing children" in this case doesn't necessarily mean to birth them, rather, just aid in conceiving a child. I'm sure Shikamaru had a lot of fun with that
> 
> I always thought it was interesting that Suna's system of choosing their Kage was different in that it felt more like a monarchy. I wanted to expand upon that and admittedly, I was inspired to take this on after reading SpicedGold's "My Child Won't Fear Shadows." I encourage you all to read it. They are doing an amazing job building up Temari's character and giving her more depth and context. 
> 
> Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this fic! I certainly had fun playing with Shikamaru's dynamics with the Sand Sibs. Let me know if my explanation as to why Shikamaru needed to be given a title made sense or not. I tried not to make it too complicated, but well...
> 
> [EDIT: Since it was first published, I've made a few revisions so that it hopefully makes a lot more sense]
> 
>   
Another note: The honorifics I covered in the beginning were based on Japanese honorifics (or at least how they are used in the Naruto verse).
> 
> Lord Nara = Nara-sama  
Lord Shikamaru = Shikamaru-sama  
Sir Shikamaru/Sir = Shikamaru-san (this was the most difficult to translate as it doesn't really have an English equivalent)


End file.
